Henman beats nemesis

ByEurosport

Published 16/06/2006 at 12:52 GMT

Tim Henman finally beat his nemesis Dmitry Tursunov on Friday with a 6-3 7-6(1) victory at Queen's Club to move into the semi-finals. He will now face Lleyton Hewitt after Rafael Nadal was forced to retire from their match with the scores balanced at a se

Having lost all his previous three matches against Tursunov, Henman finally beat his man with a fine display of attacking tennis, to get a measure of revenge for defeats at Wimbledon last year and this year's Australian and French Open's.

The Brit blistered into a 3-0 lead in the first set, breaking twice in the process before seeing himself pegged back to 3-3 as the Russian's powerful hitting momentarily paid dividends.

TENNIS 2006 ATP Queen's Club Tursunov D. - Henman T.

Image credit: Reuters

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But for once, Henman's nerve held as he broke Tursunov twice more to take the opening set 6-3 with Tursunov mindlessly calling his own shot long when it clearly hit the line on set point.

More of the same from the former world number four as he stormed into an early lead in the second set before sufffering his usual lapse in form at 4-2 up.

From there the Briton frittered away his lead, allowing the Russian to move into a 5-4 lead, from where he should have been able to serve out for the set.

Henman then battled well to create a break point and was relieved to see Tursunov inexplicably smash the ball into the net to seal another break of serve.

The players then moved into a tie-break with little fuss where a rash of errors and some sound Henman serving saw the crowd favourite through to the last-four with a cross-court forehand securing the breaker 7-1.

NADAL FORCED OUT

Rafael Nadal was forced to forfeit his match against three-time former Queen's champion Lleyton Hewitt after suffering from a muscle problem in his left shoulder during the second set of their quarter-final.

The French Open champion took the opening set 6-3 in great style after a slightly stuttering start and looked to have the measure of his opponent who he had never previously beaten away from his favoured clay.

TENNIS 2006 ATP Queen's Club Nadal R. - Hewitt L. Nadal injured

Image credit: Reuters

However, as the second set got underway Hewitt was able to summon his fighting spirit ot the fore as he pulled out to a 4-1 lead before Nadal was forced to call out the trainer.

The top seed took a three minute timeout before finishing the set, losing it 6-3 before calling the trainer out for a final time.

It was decided that he should retire at this point, before suffering any further damage to his shoulder and putting his Wimbledon challenge in jeopardy.

MONFILS SUFFERS BACK INJURY

Earlier in the day, Frenchman Gael Monfils was also forced to retire from his quarter-final against American James Blake, after suffering a back injury.

The number 13 seed was had already lost the opening set 6-1 and has now been forced to withdraw from next week's tournament in Nottingham.

It remains to be seen if he will be able to recover in time to take up his place in the main draw at Wimbledon a week on Monday.

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